John McDonnell goes off message over Jeremy Corbyn’s Facebook posts

The leader’s office said the shadow chancellor’s comments were 'not right'.

Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell don’t usually disagree with each other in public. But even Labour’s Lennon and McCartney cannot sing from the same song sheet all of the time.

McDonnell went off message when quizzed about his colleague's involvement in the Palestine Live group, which is alleged to have posted anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and neo-Nazi material on Facebook.

Corbyn said yesterday that he was added to the group without his knowledge in 2013 or 2014. He maintained that he was unaware there had been antisemitic content in the group and he had left when he became Labour leader in 2015.

"I have never trawled through the whole group. I have never read all the messages on it. I have removed myself from it. Obviously, any anti-Semitic comment is wrong. Any anti-Semitism in any form is wrong," he said.

But asked about the issue on Sky News on Friday morning, McDonnell had a slightly different line.

"He was added, and then participated in some of the debate. When he discovered there were some people in it who were expressing anti-Semitic views he immediately came out of that," the shadow chancellor said.

John McDonnell says Corbyn left the Facebook group when antisemitic abuse was pointed out to him.

Corbyn says: "I removed myself from the group in 2015.

"I have never trawled through the whole group. I have never read all the messages on it. I have removed myself from it.” pic.twitter.com/w6TAiCOB2K